Sanhill Crane Quartet

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

The African Scoops is an owl who has evolved a color scheme which matches that of tree bark. This, of course, makes it easier to trap it's prey. This piece was executed on 9 x 12 inch water color paper using Faber Castell water soluble pencils for the greater part of the drawing and accents and color using the Derwent Inktense pencils and blocks.

This beautiful and tiny bird was painted on 6 x 6 inch bristol and was still larger than life. I used Faber Castell water soluble graphite pencils to lay out the drawing as well as paint it along with Derwent Inktense blocks. The specks of black on the body under the wings were created by using the 8B graphite on wet paper. This immediately makes the graphite permenant and much darker.

Sunday, February 19, 2017

I just finished this work. In the end, because I didn't like the way the right wing feathers came out, I touched it up with acrylic paints which worked very well over the Inktense blocks. This painting was done on 9 x 12 inch watercolor paper using Derwent Inktense blocks and pencilas as well as acrylic paints.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

I save the photo of this bird from FB and didn't see any notation about the this bird's full name so I've named him Hummingbird of Unknown Origins. If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know.

He was drawn with Derwent water soluble graphite pencils and painted with Derwent Inktense pencils and blocks. I think he's beautiful. I use pencils to begin the layers and then the blocks to enhance the colors.

Monday, February 13, 2017

Not too long ago, a couple of months or so, I took a break. I didn't know what I wanted from my art so I stopped. Then I had a flash; an insight; realism. I want to paint and draw in a realistic style, not just representative. I started with feathers. Here are a couple of my first efforts in mastering realism.

Then I moved on to birds. It made sense. They are after all the keepers of the feathers. I've done several but the following bird portraits are my successes. The others are my lessons in technique with a new medium: Derwent Inktense pencils and blocks and Derwent water soluable graphite pencils. I'm very happy with the medium and each animal protrait teaches me more and more how this medium works.

If you're interested in using this medium I recommend you watch tutorials from https://lachri.com. Lisa Clough, the artist behind lachri.com, is a very talented artist who uses a variety of medium and offers many tutorials.

My first bird was a great success. It's a Tufted Coquette Hummingbird. With a name like that how can it not be a success. As you can see, it's a magnificent collection of colors and textures. If you look this book up on the internet you'll see that this is indeed what the bird looks like. Nature does good work.

I've just completed a protrait of a pair of Scarlet Ibis. While the leafy background is repesentative I wasn't concerned with realism among the grasses. It's the birds I wanted to portrait as realistically as possible. I am most pleased with the results. Looking at it I can see places where I can improve but that's art. You work and you learn.

This piece was executed on a 15 x 20 inch piece of antique white illustration board. The pink tint in the background is a result of cast shadow when I too the photo with my phone. I'll need to retake both photos with my camera before I have prints made, if I have prints made. I'm not sure yet.